Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Two Russian Federation naval vessels have sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. These are the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate RFSAdmiral Grigorovich (745) and rescue tug RFS Viktor Konetskiy.The Russian frigate and tug are presently berthing alongside each other at Deep Water Quay, and they are expected to sail from Valletta Port in the coming days. (24-May-2016)

Monday, May 23, 2016

An easyJet Airbus A320-200 (G-EZUC), performing flight U2-1998 from Malta IAP (Malta) to Manchester (U.K.), had to return to Malta International Airport this afternoon due to a medical emergency on board. The aircraft departed again to Manchester after one-hour technical stop. (23-May-2016)

The French Navy seagoing tug FS Malabar(A 664) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit.The French tug is presently berthing alongside at Wine wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port in the coming days. (23-May-2016)

Saturday, May 21, 2016

A Turkish Airlines Boeing B737-900 (TC-JYD), performing flight TK-561 from Abidjan (Ivory Coast) to Istantbul-Ataturk IAP (Turkey), had to divert to Malta International Airport this morning due to a medical emergency on board. The aircraft continued with its flight to Istanbul after a 1.5-hour technical stop. (21-May-2016)

Friday, May 20, 2016

Two Turkish naval auxiliary vessels have sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. These are the training shipTCG Sokullu Mehmet Pasa (A 577) and the troop-transport ship TCG Iskenderun (A 1600).The Turkish naval auxiliary vessels are presently berthing alongside at Pinto-4/5 wharf, and they are expected to sail from Valletta Port in the coming days. (20-May-2016)

Monday, May 16, 2016

The German Navy Bremen-class frigate FGS Karlsruhe (F 212) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. The German frigate is presently berthing alongside at Boiler wharf, and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port in the coming days. (16-May-2016)

Friday, May 6, 2016

An Easyjet Airbus A320-200 (G-EZUG), performing flight U2-1998 (on May 5th) from Malta IAP (Malta) to Manchester (U.K.), was enroute at FL320 about 120-nm south of Milan (Italy) when the captain decided to divert the aircraft to Milan-Malpensa Airport after the first officer had become ill and was unable to continue duties. The aircraft landed safely on Malpensa's RWY 35L about 20-mins later. The first officer and a passenger, who had fallen ill earlier, were taken to a hospital. The airline reported the illnesses of the passenger and first officer appear to be unrelated. A replacement crew continued the flight. The aircraft departed Milan after about 2.5 hours on the ground and reached Manchester with a delay of 2.5 hours. (Source: avherald.com, 5-May-2016)

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Malta IAP welcomed 415,409 passengers
last April, marking a 5.7% growth over the previous year and kick starting the
busy, summer months ahead. This figure is comparable to the passenger numbers
registered in the August peak of 2011 (427,575 passengers), just five years ago.

Apri'’s
growth partially resulted from the launch of the airport'ssummer
schedule,
which features new routes, new airlines, and an increased flight frequency to a
number of destinations. In fact this contributed to a seat capacity growth of
3.8%.

The top five
traffic drivers for April remained largely unchanged from the previous months,
with the United Kingdom holding on to its top spot, followed by Italy, Germany,
and France.

The only exception
was Poland, which placed fifth in the airport's top markets list. Poland’s
27.3% growth over the previous year stemmed from the introduction of the new
Poznan route towards the end of March and an increased flight frequency to
Gdansk.

A look back
at the first four months of 2016 shows a record number of passenger movements
at Malta IAP with over 1.2 million guests having passed
through, up by 12% compared to 2015. (Source: maltairport.com, 3-May-2016)